The information about the location of natural and constructed geospatial objects such as minerals, buildings,. rivers, roads, forests and development sites are at the heart of geospatial data collection, storage, display and analysis. Where a house, a mine, a shopping center, a factory, a farm and a Superfund site is located is important to surveyors, real estate professionals, geologists, environmentalists and many other professionals and the public. The Global Positioning System (GPS) provides this crucial locational information.

Longitude-Latitude-Altitude-Time

It is astonishing that we now have the location (latitude, longitude, and altitude) of any place at any time on earth with almost pinpoint accuracy. This free, accurate, reliable and globally available location information is a powerful and indispensable tool. Just image the power a GPS, GIS and Internet-enabled, hand-held device- such as a cell phone- can provide. Whether in geosciences, marketing, transportation, real estate, navigation, banking, agriculture, environment, mapping and surveying, epidemiology, the GPS, combined with GIS and the Internet, have revolutionized location-centric disciplines.

The following links provide various levels of information about the GPS technologies and receivers. Start with the one you are comfortable with. Spend enough time to master the role of GPS in geospatial data.